Clearer criteria for posts to be deleted?

Maybe this is the result of MP's growth and maturity, but I seem to be noticing an increased number of at least questionably improper threads and posts recently, especially by brand new members. This morning's leading example is the exterior door thread that promotes an unrelated business in the miles and points forum; it has generated some unwelcoming but amusing posts, so I suspect others on MP share my frustration.

Others have posted some related concerns recently in the "self promotion" thread, especially about posts designed to direct traffic to the poster's outside blog or prominent links to outside websites in the MP signature lines.

There was a recent post by a new member that offered to buy miles and/or SWUs. Less clearcut are the posts that ask about how to get miles or upgrade instruments really fast, that solicit trades in the public fora of MP, or that tell some hard luck story that may or may not be true in an attempt to encourage others to donate miles and other stuff to them. Maybe I'm just overly suspicious here.

I've been using the report button whenever I notice a post that I believe may cross the line, but i'm not
always confident of my judgment. In addition, I wonder whether new members are informed of the Terms and Rules as clearly as they could be. Some of this stuff is pretty blatant but the veiled solicitation of trades or promotion of a travel website in the form of a possibly helpful hint might be viewed differently by different readers.

Sometimes the result of reporting a post is swift and clear: it disappears quickly and the poster is never seen again. Other times the material seems to stay or I'm unable to observe the result because I don't remember the username or enough about the item to search for the thread conclusively. Yet I understand that it would be extraordinarily time consuming to respond to every report and doing so could violate privacy.

It could be useful if one's own sent reports were available in a file for later reference or if there were a check box on reports requesting a brief update, or even an agree/disagree report back, regarding the decision so that one could better figure out what is and is not considered acceptable on MP.

I apologize for this long post, but I'm basically requesting a bit more guidance about what should be reported (to avoid wasting time) as well as more prominent rules in this area, possibly including some examples of general types of posts that are inappropriate on MP. Buying/selling miles presumably could be considered fraud, but this isn't spelled out anywhere, nor is there a written standard that I can find about veiled solicitations. Perhaps there should be to avoid dealing with some of these problems. Is it possible that some people just don't realize what they should not or cannot post and informing them clearly would cause them not to post inappropriate stuff?

Of course, ultimately it's Randy's rules and Randy rules on MP (and I do remember and appreciate the instant justice in response to a problematic conversation a bunch of us received a while back).

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I apologize for this long post, but I'm basically requesting a bit more guidance about what should be reported (to avoid wasting time) as well as more prominent rules in this area, possibly including some examples of general types of posts that are inappropriate on MP. Buying/selling miles presumably could be considered fraud, but this isn't spelled out anywhere, nor is there a written standard that I can find about veiled solicitations. Perhaps there should be to avoid dealing with some of these problems. Is it possible that some people just don't realize what they should not or cannot post and informing them clearly would cause them not to post inappropriate stuff?

Click to expand...

Agreed. I have in the past reported posts and not (always) seen action taken. Was it because my judgement was wrong? Was it because no one was on duty? Was it because the "Report" feature didn't work? I never knew, and I have found myself think twice about clicking that link now... Especially in the "judgement" case it would be very helpful to get feedback. I like learning from my mistakes.

I'm bumping up this thread because another instance of this occurred yesterday. A new member joined and started a thread essentially asking for someone to sell him gifted Delta Gold status. When told that doing so would violate the T&C of DL's FF program, the OP responded that he could pay someone well for their time in making the gift (my paraphrase). Someone else reported the OP quickly, but nothing has apparently happened. Nor has the OP seemingly exhibited any interest in contributing to MP. At least several of us are disturbed by this.

You can see the details of the discussion in the thread "Anyone Willing to Gift Delta...." in the General Discussion forum.

You might notice that the thread has been removed. I thought I had removed earlier but was having a problem w/ AT&T bars providing enough bandwidth to perform the function. Agree with others disturbed by this person's lack of interest to support MilePoint -- only seemingly wanting to take, not give.

MSPeconomist said:

I'm bumping up this thread because another instance of this occurred yesterday. A new member joined and started a thread essentially asking for someone to sell him gifted Delta Gold status. When told that doing so would violate the T&C of DL's FF program, the OP responded that he could pay someone well for their time in making the gift (my paraphrase). Someone else reported the OP quickly, but nothing has apparently happened. Nor has the OP seemingly exhibited any interest in contributing to MP. At least several of us are disturbed by this.

You can see the details of the discussion in the thread "Anyone Willing to Gift Delta...." in the General Discussion forum.

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